Parents face court over term-time break after schools split on permission

http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/jan/22/parents-court-term-time-holiday

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A Rotherham couple have fallen foul of a government crackdown on term-time holidays after they applied for permission to take their two children on a family trip and were told that their daughter’s school had approved the request but their son’s had turned it down.

Annette and Michael Putt have been told to appear before Rotherham magistrates on 4 February after refusing to pay fines of £60 each for their son’s unauthorised absence. If convicted they could face a fine of up to £2,500 or up to three months in jail.

The Putts asked to be allowed to take their two children – Harrison, 14, and Ruby, 11 – out of school for a five-day holiday in Wales last June. The family say they cannot afford to go away during school holidays, when prices are dearer, and the children’s grandparents had offered to pay for the trip as a gift.

Under government guidelines, headteachers are allowed to give permission for absences only in exceptional circumstances. In the Putts’ case the children’s circumstances were identical, but while Ruby was given permission by St Gerard’s Catholic primary school, Harrison was refused by St Bernard’s Catholic High.

The Putts went ahead with the break in Porthmadog, staying in a caravan, and on their return they learned that Harrison’s school had notified the local authority of an unauthorised absence.

“I feel really upset,” Mrs Putt, a care worker, told the Guardian. “I can’t actually believe that someone’s going to name and shame me in court. I’m not a criminal. I haven’t hurt anyone. I’m not a bad person. I’m a normal mum, wanting to give our children some family holiday time.

“My little girl’s school said it was fine to take her for five days, my son’s said no. What was I meant to do? Was I meant to leave my son at home and go on holiday, or not let my little girl go on holiday? We’ve always been very supportive of the school. Harrison’s doing exceptionally well. I would never have taken him out of school if he was suffering academically. I would never, ever have put his education at risk. I didn’t understand why five days would affect him.”

A spokesman for Rotherham borough council said it was up to an individual school to decide whether to authorise an absence. “The council’s policy around absence during term time is determined by central government, which takes the view that parents shouldn’t take their children out of school during term time in order to raise educational attainment. Any decisions to fine – or to prosecute for non-payment – are determined by this government policy.”

Karen Wilkinson, co-founder of Parents Want a Say, which campaigns against the ban on term-time holidays, said: “This case is an example of how parents have an overview of the family needs which just isn’t available to individual headteachers and it is not acceptable that they are being taken to court for taking a balanced view of what is in their children’s and family’s best interest.

“There is very little if any evidence that occasional family holidays impact on a child’s attainment and indeed some to the contrary. We hope more schools and local authorities follow the lead of many sensible headteachers and the Local Government Association in treating absence for family holidays completely separately to persistent absence.”

The Local Government Association, which represents councils across the country, has previously said the blanket ban on term-time holidays is too simplistic and should be dropped.

Before the crackdown, headteachers were allowed to grant up to 10 days’ leave a year for family holidays in special circumstances. When the government introduced the changes it argued that regular absence from school put children’s learning at a severe disadvantage.

Last October figures showed that the number of pupils in England taken out of school to go on family holidays had dropped by almost a third, with the number of days lost to term-time holidays reduced from 3.3m in 2013 to 2.5m last year.

A spokesperson at the Department for Education said: “Children may be given term time leave in exceptional circumstances and it is rightly down to headteachers to decide on individual cases. “Evidence shows allowing pupils to regularly miss school can be hugely detrimental to education. We are addressing this, with 130,000 fewer pupils regularly missing school under this government. We have also increased fines for truancy and encouraged schools to address the problem earlier.”